When will Portland learn?
There’s a movement afoot in Portland to provide free food to the homeless from front yard refrigerators. Willamette Week thinks it’s a great way “to Be a Better Neighbor”. I don’t.
It’s a misguided feel-good effort at charity by naïve social justice warriors that perpetuates their presence while not resolving the situation on the ground. And of course the homeless services complex never shrinks because the client base never diminishes.
A while ago I went to a free lunch for the homeless in an underground Portland parking garage. Tables spread out across the center of the garage displayed a bounty of meal options put together by multiple volunteers, from sandwiches and lasagna to potato chips and hot ethic dishes. Homeless people streamed in, wearily assembled in slow-moving lines, grabbed hold of what they wanted and found a spot on the concrete floor to sit and eat.
It wasn’t uplifting. It was depressing.
Nobody was there to help the struggling people get their lives back on track, to inquire about the welfare of their children, to make them aware of accessible pathways towards lasting change.
The fridges are little more than an incentive for too many of the homeless to stay in a downward spiral of addiction and helplessness.
” The concept is simple,” says Willamette Week. ” Find a fridge, hook it up to a power source, put it in your front yard, and stock it with free food.”
There’s even an outfit, PDX Free Fridge, that will give you advice on how to start a free fridge effort and publicize it.
There’s a saying of uncertain providence, “Give a Man a Fish, and You Feed Him for a Day. Teach a Man To Fish, and You Feed Him for a Lifetime”. The free food tribe are giving the homeless a fish.
It’s a classic case of when helping the homeless doesn’t really help, but reinforces a culture of helplessness.
It reminded me of when I saw a group of fresh-faced, eager suburban teenage girls handing out sandwiches from the trunk of their car to homeless people at the Tom McCall Waterfront Park. That might have eased their consciences, but how, exactly, did that drive change?
A woman who directed a social service agency in the Portland area that served low-income families once told me the whole free food approach was “antiquated”, a long-ago discredited tactic.
And, of course, all of this ignores the fact your neighbors may be less than supportive of cluttering up front yards with old refrigerators that serve as magnets for the homeless under the guise of compassion. I guess that doesn’t matter when you’re on the side of goodness.
ThinkingOregon 
Many houseless people have severe mental challenges that prevent them from keeping employment and housing. We do not have a mental health infrastructure in Portland or the US that effectively supports those individuals with medication management, housing, or other essential services. While free fridges are an inadequate response to this crisis, they can serve as a contribution of individual space, utilities, and resources to the public. Undoubtedly, there are concerns.
Have you considered the other people who may benefit, as well? Many children and teens have limited access to fresh fruit and vegetables. A public-facing fridge can provide some needed nutrition to youth who do not have control over their own pantry. Many more people have multi-generational families living together on a limited budget. This is frequently due to global politics that have forced refugees and immigrants to leave countries we have destabilized through foreign policy. As voters in a “representative” democracy that has failed to represent anything but corporate interests and oligarchs, many feel powerless to undo the damage they are implicit in just by being born into this economic engine. Contributions like free food donations can be a first step to support these neighbors, or at least create a bridge to welcome them into community.
Food pantries are rarely located in neighborhoods, although pop-up or mobile programs are beginning to reach more communities. Distributed food sharing through free fridges can also support people without transportation or neighbors who do not know where to get donations or support services.
Maybe most importantly, free fridges represent a dissolution of private property boundaries. For many, this is a small step toward collectivism over capitalism. Many people who want to contribute more to the redistribution of resources have to do this asynchronously, because work schedules often sync up with pantry hours.
I’m sorry you don’t want these services in your front yard.